Dr. Kubassek János szerk.: A Kárpát-medence természeti értékei (Érd, 2004)
Dr. Péter Rózsa: Robert Townson (1762-1827): a pioneer scientific explorer of the Carpathian Basin
0%Ùw 'Móma O Society of Edinburgh in June 1791 proposed by James Hutton (1726-1797), the founder of modern geology. In the end of the year 1791, through Sweden and Denmark, he went to Göttingen, and enrolled as a student of natural history at the famous University of Göttingen. He took a year off; he travelled to Vienna where he spent the winter of 1792, and thereafter during the summer of 1793 toured throughout Hungary. Then he returned to Göttingen, and published his first works, in Latin, on amphibian physiology in two parts in 1794 and 1795 {Observationes physiologicae de Amphibis) . After this four-year absence abroad, he returned home in July 1795. The forthcoming some years represent his most flourishing period. In 1796 he obtained an LL.D. degree from Edinburgh University. In 1797 he published his Travels in Hungary with a short account of Vienna in the year 1793, which soon appeared in French (1799 and 1803) and Dutch (1800). In 1799 Townson published his Tracts and Observations on Natural History including first pioneering geological description of Shropshire, lithology of Stonehenge, and the English version of his pioneering investigations of amphibian physiology, which is high praised even nowadays. 2 His next book was the Philosophy of Mineralogy ( 1798), in which he tried to persuade the British public of the value of a knowledge and investigation of the earth's mineral structure. His final book was urn A Poor Man's Moralist (1798), which appeared in five editions until 1804. This work was a collection of moral aphorisms, and was sold cheaply to help "improve" the working classes. Townson continuously tried to obtain patronage to work in Africa, Canada or India. As early as 1791 he sought the post of Government naturalist to Upper Canada, however, in spite of having recommendations from Hutton, Rutherford and Walker, he was unsuccessful. After his return to England, he sought the patronage of the East India Company to survey the mineralogy and natural history of India, but his application was also unsuccessful. At much the same time he applied for a similar post at the Sierra Leone Company, he was again rejected. After his mother's death in 1805, he decided to emigrate as a scientific settler to Australia. He recommended his natural history collections to the care of a friendly family, but all his letters burnt before departure. He set off for Australia in December I8O6, where he arrived in July 1807. His new life started with serious problems: the Governor of New South Wales (William Bligh, who earlier "encouraged" the famous Mutiny on the Bounty) was
